First of all, let’s get to the conclusion: ‘Remihar’ was a super important festival.
In the country I lived in before coming here, it was as big as Lunar New Year or Chuseok, and in the West, it was just as important as Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Satsuki explained Remihar like this:
“Remihar is a month to express gratitude to Arlil. It’s when we show our thanks for the holy power received throughout the year and promise to continue doing well through rituals and festivals.”
When I heard “ritual,” the only thing that popped into my head was that Korean-style ritual, but it turned out the elves had their own unique way of doing things. However, Satsuki said she didn’t know the details either. Her dad, despite living away from elven society, didn’t bring it up much.
He might have comprehensive knowledge about elven society, but nobody can remember every single detail, right?
Still, the fact that he tried not to talk about it makes me suspicious… Nah, it’s probably nothing.
Besides, I don’t even plan on going. The Church definitely wouldn’t want to send their one and only saint there.
Why would I want to suffer among the ultimate grumpy old men? I’ve dealt with enough of those while working. Just thinking about my senior, who was only eight months older but acted like a total jerk, makes me worry about what would happen in the elven society, which is pretty much a haven for such people.
Well, sure, I could heal cancer with holy power, so it’s not like it’s a huge problem, but still.
Listening to Satsuki, it seemed Remihar wasn’t just a major holiday; it was the elven society’s only holiday.
So important that skipping the Academy would still count as attendance.
Even in the world I lived in, during holidays, relatives gathered to compare everything from salary to whatever else. Would the elves be any different? Probably even worse.
And if there’s a ‘human’ in the mix that they think is inferior? Shudders. Just the thought is horrifying.
Sure enough, the Church wouldn’t want their saint to be treated like that.
Right?
*
Not even close!
The Church was ecstatic.
They were so thrilled that they already knew about it, even before I mentioned anything.
“Saint, please be a bridge between humans and elves. We ask this of you.”
That was Father Nguyen talking.
I mean, I could refuse just with words, but the paperwork he handed me had signatures and seals from the Pope and some nameless bureaucrat from the central government. Not quite at the presidential level, but seeing something from the foreign affairs department indicates it was a pretty important figure. Most importantly, it had the Pope’s ring seal on it.
The absence of the president’s seal probably signals some checks from the government side. It means the Pope requests something from the central government, and the bureaucrat ‘approves’ it.
It would make sense for the Church to feel a bit offended about it, but why go so far just to get permission?
Wouldn’t it just be easier for the elves to summon me?
I hadn’t heard of any limits on entering the elven district. Kihmuhir and Satsuki didn’t mention anything, either. After all, it’s practically a different country, but it’s still regions under the same government, so there weren’t any movement restrictions.
It’s just that the races encountered in the elven district are all elves, and other races can’t handle their vibe and end up leaving. The elves also don’t like it when other races enter their territories.
So getting permission from them provides a pretty solid justification.
Yet, for some reason, the Pope decided to directly get a rather humiliating approval. That means the Church wants something.
…The issue is, they’re not telling me what that thing is.
On the document, there was one more empty signature line.
It was written:
[Saint Clara Anderson:]
It looks like they want me to sign it since I don’t have a ring or a seal.
I looked up at Father Nguyen, who was grinning. He looked so proud of what he was doing.
I can’t just refuse now, right?
Isn’t pushing me through with bureaucratic procedures a bit unfair?
Above all, the Pope’s seal means “You follow this!”
…Surely Linnea mentioned something about the saint’s power being greater than the Pope’s or something, but the reality seems to be different.
And this document was thick.
It looked like at least 50 pages. At this point, it couldn’t just be a simple permission document; it had to be something like a treaty, right? Even the insurance paperwork I’ve seen is thinner than this.
There’s definitely too much to read through right here.
“……”
Looking again at Father Nguyen, he was still grinning.
I stifled a sigh, reluctantly took the pen offered, and wrote “Clara Anderson” in the signature line.
Should I claim later that this isn’t my real name?
Of course, that wouldn’t fly…
*
Even though there’s still over a month until summer vacation, the sun was blazing down. March and April weren’t too cold, and from May it started to get warmer, so even in early June, the sunlight was intense. This makes me think the 21st District might be near the Mediterranean or something…
Or maybe all the demons arriving and magic points popping up began some weather change. The settings I defined made up only a tiny part of this world. Perhaps there’s something else happening here that I don’t know about.
The elven district was very far from the 21st District where I was living. Since the 21st District was relatively central, it naturally distanced itself from the corner where the human powers pushed the elves.
Is Kihmuhir basically studying abroad at a foreign school? Well, for elves, just being in the human world is like being abroad.
If anything, Satsuki is the more interesting case. Unlike Kihmuhir, who has to come all the way for special admission, her parents live far away in the 21st District.
From what I heard from Satsuki, her dad seemed to want to return to the elven district someday. But is there a reason for being so far away? Maybe he thinks he can return anytime.
But flying there only takes a couple of hours.
This time, it wasn’t a sudden trip with a set destination, nor was it to the battlefield, so I had to take a plane.
It was a small commercial jet that I rode once when traveling abroad, but the interior was pretty high-end compared to the exterior. It was a far cry from that chicken coop I once flew in.
Maybe it was rented from the central government.
Honestly, if it was just me and Kihmuhir going, we probably wouldn’t need such a large plane, but I figured it needed to be this big to fit my attendants who followed me.
Right, attendants.
Since I became a saint, I hadn’t gone to any official events, so I didn’t know, but it seemed there’s a knight squad that follows an adult when they travel far. There seemed to be about ten or so, but I only got to briefly greet them since I met them right before boarding the plane.
We were in completely different sections, so the attendants were all behind a partition.
……Well, around ten people can’t fit in too snugly, but it does feel a bit guilty. I feel like I’m the only one getting spoiled.
Fortunately, Aurora was able to board in the same section as me since she was the oldest as my ‘Saint Attendant.’ In a sense, she could be considered my closest aide.
Sitting comfortably in a big, plush chair and gazing out the window, Aurora’s eyes sparkled like a child’s. The scenery from a military helicopter and a commercial plane is definitely going to look different. Now it’s bound to be a lot prettier.
By the way, Linnea couldn’t come. Neither could Andrea, the knight I see the most.
“I’m sorry, but the Inquisition doesn’t have a great rapport with elves,” Linnea said with a genuinely regretful expression. Well, it makes sense. Even if they appear fine on the outside, the Inquisition is a place that captures people who don’t align with their belief system. If asked who in the Church has the strongest faith, they’d probably choose the Inquisition members.
The elves blatantly call holy power ‘sacred power’ and sacred relics ‘relics.’ This difference of opinion means they already have a very cool relationship with the Church, and what would happen if they met the most hardline group in the Church, the Inquisition?
While the Inquisition doesn’t touch those who invoke holy power, elves biologically can’t invoke holy power.
…Thinking about this makes it hard to trust the other humans in the Church here either.
What if they cause some trouble?
“What are you thinking about?”
Kihmuhir, who was sitting comfortably with his legs crossed right in front of me, asked.
Kihmuhir was wearing a different outfit from what I’ve seen him in before. What do you even call that? It was a long-sleeved top with cut-off sleeves from elbow to wrist, so the lower part of the sleeve dangled down.
The green top was slightly long, covering Kihmuhir’s thighs a bit.
He wore leggings that hugged his legs underneath.
Hmm, looking at it, it does look elvish in any sense, right? Or maybe it’s just the green top that gives that impression?
“Oh, this?”
Noticing where my gaze was, Kihmuhir lightly spread his arms, showing off his outfit. It looked flowy enough that if it were a skirt, you could easily believe he was an elven priest.
“This is traditional elven attire. We call it ‘Ryahiru.’”
Kihmuhir sang out ‘Ryahiru’ with a musical tone. Just to express it, it would be like ‘Rya→hi↑ru→.’
……This was yet another instance of my strange settings being applied.
Before going to the elven district, I thought it’d be good to learn some phrases, so I looked up a bit about the elven language, and the interesting features I found were as follows:
1. There are no ‘rules’ in the elven language. Unlike regular languages, there are no particles, and everything is contained within single words. Instead of words changing into adjectives or verbs, there are separate words for ‘adjective’ and ‘verb’ along with ‘words with particles.’ Naturally, there are also no ‘past’ or ‘future’ forms. To put it simply, think of it like every word is ‘irregular’ like in English.
Despite being labeled irregular, it doesn’t change like there are any boundaries. In actuality, it looks completely different, like a totally different word.
For instance, ‘Arlil’ means ‘great tree,’ and ‘Kihmuhir’ means ‘great person.’ It’s pointless trying to find the part that means ‘great’ because they are just entirely different words.
The elves themselves seem to have their own rules in their heads, so there might be composite forms with two words, but to other races, they just sound like wholly different terms. The elves seem to easily understand the newly coined words made this way.
Attempts to explain these rules have all failed so far. Both the elves themselves and other races cannot grasp it.
2. The number of characters used is extremely limited.
In elven script, you only have consonants: k, h, p, r, m. The sound ㅇ isn’t shown separately and is included within the vowels. It functions like a final consonant, but only ㄹ can be used.
Among the vowels, you have six: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅔ, ㅡ, ㅣ. In total, there are ten characters to express everything. The shapes are all different, but morphologically, it’s similar to writing an alphabet. So while ‘reading’ is relatively easy, since there are no exceptions to the pronunciation, you can just read whatever you see.
However, there is one catch to this ‘reading’—
3. There are 12 tones.
Yes, a whopping 12 tones! Saying ‘Ah→Ri↑’ and ‘Ah↑Ri→’ is completely different! Even if the arrows are the same, if the pitch change is different, it becomes another word! While there are tonal languages on Earth, I doubt there’s one to such an annoying level like this.
That said, when elves speak in their language, it sounds like singing due to this.
One of the elf-related jokes I found said, “There were two elves singing together, and when a passing elf asked what song it was, they replied they were cursing each other’s parents.”
The problem is they don’t indicate these tones in writing.
So what do you do?
It’s simple: you have to memorize each word individually.
For that reason, the elven language is referred to as a graveyard for linguists researching otherworldly language.
……I wonder if they’ll scold me for not pronouncing it correctly? After all, I’m going in there as ‘recognized.’
“By the way, everyone has to wear this when performing rituals.”
“Oh, um….”
Of course, I didn’t feel anything special. Even though I was invited to the festival, the rituals are something the elves perform. With the elves being a society of grumpy old men, they had no real reason to invite outsiders to their most sacred place.
You know, like those rituals where only certain families can enter, or only nobles can participate, or only certain genders are allowed?
“There’s also a clothing option that fits your size, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“……What?”
Suddenly talking about sizes, I unconsciously asked back.
“I mean, the size. Among the elves, there aren’t many who are as… voluminous as you.”
Well, that’s true for races other than elves too.
What I asked wasn’t about that at all.
“Am I really participating in the rituals?”
“Of course! That’s why you were invited.”
What the heck?!
Participating in the one and only festival of the elves, and the most important part, the ritual?
Oh wait, could it be? Perhaps it’s been agreed upon with the government or the Church that outsiders should join and experience the process. At the very least, they’re bringing me in because of my holy power, so I would guess it’s just to ‘pretend to be friendly’ or something.
“I sent you the guide in advance. Didn’t you read it?”
“The guide?”
Oh, the guide.
Now that I think about it, that document I signed was over 50 pages long…
…Could it be that the document detailed everything I had to do during the ceremony and that’s why it was so thick? Not just an agreement or legal document?
A cold sweat formed on my forehead.
The airplane was kept at a comfortable temperature, so it wasn’t from the heat.
“The Remihar ritual is a ceremony expressing gratitude to Arlil. You understood that, right?”
Even when saying Remihar and Arlil, Kihmuhir’s voice had a musical tone. Well, being a pureblood elf from a prestigious family, he probably nails every single pitch.
While Satsuki’s tone did shift slightly when pronouncing elven words, it wasn’t as exaggerated as Kihmuhir’s.
Is it because the elves have their own methods that make singing sound natural?
Anyway, I nodded and responded to her question.
“Yes, and it’s also a sign of hoping for good things in the future…”
“Exactly!”
Kihmuhir beamed and said.
“And there’s something offered during the process of asking. Because it’s a ritual, you know. For the last 50 years, we have offered holy water—the holy water we directly imported from the Church.”
When he said “Church,” Kihmuhir showed a slightly sour expression, but thankfully, it wasn’t directed at me.
“And before that, saints from the Church came and acted as the officiants for the rituals.”
“……What?”
“That’s not a well-known story. As you know, we tend to avoid outside help anyway. Honestly, when I first heard about you, I thought maybe you were just media manipulation instead of a real saint, you know?”
“……”
“Ah, it’s not a bad thought. I mean, you suddenly appearing after 50 years with no prophecy or anything is quite shocking. The Church didn’t teach us about you either, so it’s only natural to be suspicious, right?”
Didn’t he think negatively of me for having such thoughts before?
“But then, when I saw the… or rather, the relic you brought, I knew. Ah, she is indeed the real saint. Honestly, it was my first time seeing such a relic, so I couldn’t even be sure if I was really looking at it. I never imagined I’d get to see both the relic and its creator at the same time.”
Kihmuhir smiled at me.
“Elves are very sensitive to holy power. They can generally figure out who created the holy power. To be on the safe side, I checked with my hometown, and after confirming that you were the creator, I immediately informed the elders.”
So that was the strange look he had earlier.
Looks like he has the poker face instinct…
“Ah!”
Just then, Aurora, who had been staring out the window without getting bored, suddenly shouted.
“Is that tree poking out from the forest Arlil?”
“Yep, ‘that person’ is indeed Arlil.”
Kihmuhir said with a slight furrow in his brow in response to Aurora’s question.
Outside the window, a strikingly white tree loomed large among the dense greenery. I wouldn’t say it was just poking out; you could gather dozens of trees and make a trunk of similar size!
It looked like it had grown, twisting and turning after following the moving sun, with beautiful golden light spilling out from the giant tree.
That was holy power. I sensed it instinctively.
“There’s nothing that can be gained without a price. Even an Arlil without incoming holy power cannot have outgoing holy power.”
Following our gaze, Kihmuhir mumbled as he looked out the window.
Oh, so that’s why his look toward me was like that.
I now understood why he thought he’d have to send me immediately after receiving the elves’ request to the Church.
Doing so would give them an upper hand in their relationship with the elves.
…At the same time, I think I finally understood why the elves despise the Church.
This definitely doesn’t seem like it’s going to end up as just a hassle.
I stared at that massive, white, holy tree outside the window, thinking that.
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